1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an apparatus for controlling the opening and closing of a lid, and more particularly to an open/close drive apparatus for driving a lid of a recording medium playing apparatus, which is arranged to open and close for the opening and closing of a recorded medium insertion opening provided on the front panel of a main body of the recording medium playing apparatus, and on which control buttons are arranged.
2. Description of the Background Information
In the case of a recording medium playing apparatus, a cassette deck for example, especially in the case of a cassette deck mounted in a vehicle, it generally has a construction that a cassette tape is inserted and ejected in and from the cassette deck through a cassette insertion opening provided on the front panel of a main body of the cassette deck. The cassette insertion opening is provided with a lid in order to prevent dust from coming into the inside of the deck through the insertion opening. By using a large lid, for example, a lid covering the whole front area of the main body of the deck, and providing control buttons on the lid so that it also serves as a control panel, a limited space in the front area of the main body can effectively be utilized since the control buttons are arranged in the area covering the cassette insertion opening with such an arrangement. Furthermore, there is a cassette deck in which a motor is used as a source of driving force and the lid is driven to automatically open and close by the motor.
In the case of a cassette deck which is so constructed that the lid is used also as a control panel and is automatically opened and closed, there is a possibility of a problem that the lid cannot reach a fully opened or closed position when hindered by an obstacle to the opening or closing operation. Therefore, a measure to solve such a problem is desired.
In cassette decks, there are two kinds of loading mechanisms for loading a cassette tape inserted through a cassette insertion opening into a playing position. One is a mechanical loading mechanism in which the cassette tape is loaded into the playing position by utilizing the pushing effort of a user as a driving power source, and the other is a so called power loading mechanism in which the cassette tape is automatically loaded in the playing position in response to a loading command utilizing a plunger etc. as a driving power source.
Now, the timing of a closing drive of a lid of an automatic opening and closing type in a cassette deck will be discussed. Conventionally, in the case of a cassette deck with a mechanical loading mechanism, driving of the lid in a closing direction is started simultaneously with the loading of a tape. In the case of a cassette deck with a power loading mechanism, on the other hand, the drive of the lid in the closing direction is started at a time point of completion of the loading.
As described above, in the case of a cassette deck with a mechanical loading mechanism, if the closing operation of the lid is started immediately after the cassette tape is inserted, a finger of the user may touch the lid thereby pinching the finger against the main body of the player. In particular, in the case of a loading mechanism in which it is necessary to push the cassette tape deeply into the apparatus, the pinching of the finger may become significant.
On the other hand, in the case of a cassette deck with a power loading mechanism, if a closing operation is started after the completion of the loading, there will be a disadvantage that a long time is required for completing the operation to move the lid to a fully closed position after the generation of a loading command.